Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-02
GRAFTON TO gqNVlCFS,
DELIVERED By THE LATE TX
GOV. HGRATI0 SEYMOUR,
On Independence Day, 1870, to the
Inmates of Auburn Prison
A Noteworthy Speech.


On the 4th of July, 1879, Ex-Governor
Horatio Seymour delivered the following
address to the assembled multitude of pris-
oners in the Auburn State Penitentiarv.
1t may be read with interest and profit by
all readers:
| have declined all invitations this
year to make public addresses but when
your Warden asked me to speak to YOU to-
day, / made up my mind to do 80, although
at the hazard of my health. My interest
in the inmates of this and other prisons
grows out of official duties, as have had
to act on many cases of applications for
pardons. have learned from a long ex-
perience with men in all conditions of life,
that none are without faults and none
without virtues. / have studied characters
with care. have had to deal with Presi-
dents and with prisoners. | ha%e associ-
ated with those held in high honor by the
American people. On the other hand,
| the laws of our State have placed the lives
OF criminal men in my hands, and it has
been my duty to decide whether they
should live or die. The period in which
| took the most active part in public af-
fairs was one of great excitement, when
passions and prejudices were aroused; and
IN common with all others engaged in the
controversies of the day, have felt the
bitterness of partisan strife nevertheless
experience has taught me to think kindly
ofmy fellow men. The longer | live, the
| better think of their hearts, and the less
| of their heads. Everywhere, from the
Presidents mansion to the prisoners cell,
| have learned the wisdom of that PRAYER
which begS that we may be delivered from
temptation.
Another great truth is taught by ex-
perience: hope is the great reformer. We
must instil this in mems minds, if we
wish to cultivate their virtues, or enable
them to overcome their vices. 1t has been
said that despair is the objectionable sin 4:
for 1t paralyzes every sentiment that leads
to virtue or happiness. To help us do our
duty, we must cherish hope, which gives
MS courage and charity, which gives us
hopes for others. For this reason, when
Governor of this State, did all | could to
gain the passage of laws which enable each
one of you, by good conduct, to shorten the
term of your imprisonment, and if | had
my way, you would have share in the
profits of your labor. But | stand before
you to-day to speak of another ground OF
hope, of a higher and more lasting charac-
ter than mere gain or shortened terms of
punishment; and what | have to say does
not point to you alone, but to men of all
conditions. | do not mean to take the
place Of those who teach your religious
duties They are far more able than / am
to make these clear to your minds vet it is
sometimes the case that we see things in
lights IN which they are not usually placed
before us, and some thoughts which have
occurred to me, in review of nv life.
may be of value and interest to YOU.
When we grow old we are struck with the
heetncss of time; our lives seem to be
comprised into one brief period; we
suddenly find that pursuits that we have
followed are closed and we are confronted
with the question, not what we have
gained, nor what positions We have held,
but what we are in ourselves. We know
it is our duty to do what is right, ana to
avoid doing wrong, but when We look back,
If we add up all of our good deeds ON the
one hand, and our bad acts on the other,
we find a startling balance against us.
When men reach my time of life, their
minds turn towards the past, and they
travel backward the paths they have fol-
lowed. They see things from the opposite
side from which they were viewed in
youth onward, and are struck by truths
which never break upon their minds until
they look back upon them.
Sitting before my fire on winter even
ing, and musing, as old men are apt to do,
| 4ln,- al
cesses or their failures, it occurred to me
what | would do if | had the power, and
was compelled to wipe out twenty acts OF
my life. At first, it seemed as if this was
an easy thing to do. i had done more
than twenty wrong things for which had
always felt regret and was about to seize
my imaginary sponge and rub them out at
once, but | thought it best to move with
care, to do as had done to Others lay my
! character out upon the dissecting table
and trace all influences which had made
or marred it. | found to my surprise il
there were any golden threads running
through il, they were wrought out by the
regrets felt at wrongs; that these regrets
had run through the course of my life
guiding my footsteps through all its in
tricacies and problems; and if / should
obliterate all of these acts, to which these
golden threads were attached, whose
lengthening lines were woven into my
very nature, l should destroy what little
there was of virtue in my moral makeup
Then learned that the wrong act, followed
by the just regret, and by thoughtful
caution to avoid errors. made me better
man than should have been if | had
never fallen. In this | found hope fol
myself and hope for others, and | tell you
who sit before me, as | say to all in every
condition, that if you will you can make
yourselves better men than if you haG
never fallen into errors or crimes. A
mans destiny does not turn upon the fac
of his doing or not doing wrong-for al
will do it-but of how he bears himself
what he does and what he thinks, after tn,
wrong act 1t was we'll said by Confucius
that a mans character is decided, not by
the number of times he falls, but by thu
number of times he lifts himselfup. do no
know why evil IS permitted in this world
but | do know that each one of us has tn,
power 10 transmute it into good. Every ont
before me can, if he will, make his pas
errors sources of moral elevation. Is thi
not a grand thought, which should not only
give us hope, but which should inspire II
with firm purposes to exercise this powe
which makes rs akin TO the Almighty; fo
He has given it to us and has pointed on
in His works how we shall use it. TIL,
problem meets us at every step. There i
nothing we do which will not make u
better or worse. do not speak merely o
great events, but of the thoughts upon on
beds, the toll in the workshop, and tn,
little duties which attend every hour
God. in his goodness, does not Judge us 81
much by what we do but when we hav,
done things, right or wrong, our DESTINY
mainly turns upon what we think and dt
: after their occurrence. 1t is then We de
eide if they shall lift us up to highe
} level or bear us down to lower grade o
morals. Our acts mainly spring from i'm
pulses or accidentS-the sudden tempta
tion, imperfect knowledge or erring judg
ment. 1t Is afterthought that gives then
their hue. The world may not see this; i
may frown upon the deed and upon tn,
, man. who, nevertheless. by his regrets
makes it one which shall minister to purity
J aud virtue in all his after life. You, wht
sit before me, in some ways have advant
ages over other men whose minds are az
itated by the hopes and fears of aetiv,